ON THE "DAISY PATCH'

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2524, 27 July 1915, Page 9

ON THE "DAISY PATCH'

I BRAVE DEEDS IN GALLIPOLI fr-js' A FRENCH STRATAGEM THE "SEVENTY-FIVES" AND THE BAYONET. [By Malcolm lioss, Official Wax Correspondent with tlio New Zealand Forces.] _. ~ „ June 14. Suicido Gully, Death-Gully, Shrapnel Gully, are names of spots near Anzac Beach that aro as expressive as they arc ominous. They are names that will never be forgotten by those New Zealanders who went through the first jfew days of battlo on tlio Gallipoli Peninsula, and who have the good, luck to return, to their native land. Away down, at Capo Helles, on the end of the Peninsula, thero is a spot called tlio "Daisy Patch," a name that one would scarcely associate with war. There amongst the'green grass grew a profusion of wild flowers and beautiful •daisies. They, aro growing there! still, but amongst the daisies -aro patches of brown earth and small wooden crosses that mark the last resting-placo of several brave New Zealandcrs, who have given their all for the Empire. When our men went down there to help the Allies in the attack on Aelii Baba, they landed safely, and were marched about a mile up the road before they encountered the enemy's fire—shrapnel and common shell—which, however, fell wide. They marched a further mile to a beautiful green paddock, where they commenced to dig themselves in. - They stayed thero all night, and next day (May 6) they watched the French advance. On the 7tli, in the afternoon, they marched out in platoons, but had not covered more than a mile before shrapnel began to burst over them. It was almost dusk, and they retired on to the edge of a cliff, where they were ablo to take cover. One of the'Otago men was killed, and one or two wounded. There, also, Colonel Peerless, N.Z.M.C. (of_ Nelson), with the Canterbury Battalion, fell, shot through- the left thigh. Notwithstanding his 62 years, he was always with his regiment. He has been for several weeks ill ono of the military hospitals at Alexandria, is now convalescent, and on a troopship returning to Gallipoli. The "Daisy Patch." On May 7 this force, which was the remnant of the New Zealand Infantry Brigade—and would now amount to about a battalion' in a mile further inland, till they came to a farmhouse, and there they dug in again. No sooner had they clone this, however, than they wero ordered to fall in for a night march to the trenches before Achi Baba. There was to bo no lighting of pipes, and <srders were given in whispers. On the way they passed, occasionally, wounded men coming down from- the front. .One soldier, , seized with panic, imagined that .tlio Germans had got him, and as ho.'started to announce his belief in loud shrieks, h© had to be sent back to the dressing station. A mile further on the New Zealanders reached the trenches, and quickly got into them. Star shells were sent up by the enemy, and 'lit up . the surrounding country, but the position was not shelled, and the New Zealanders bivouacked • for the night, and slept in the trenches. Next morning, at 10.30, they got the order to advance in column of platoons, the men deploying in the usual Way. They went at first ovor broken country, but after a time came to a level plateau covered with wild flowers. This was "The Daisy Patch." There the. men began to fall. It was evideat : that the Turks liad the range ;of it. : . ''

Captain. G. Craig, N.Z.M.0., who was with the Aucklanders, according to all accounts, did good work here in succouring tlie wounded. 'With his orderly—one Stacey, a light-weight boxer —he, dodged from cover to coyer attending to' wounded from the.different regiments, including some of the Ministers, who were in the vicinity. Amongst tiny dead was the body of Lieutenant Stoadman, of the Third Auckland. He fell, shot through the heart, while leading his men. Indeed, he was one of the first to fall. In the daisy patch, over which the New Zealanders crossed before gaining the trenches, there were some twenty dead and wounded lying in a zone swept by machine-gun and rifle fire. One o£ the wounded was heard to call out, "For God's sake, send a doctor!" Every time the man moved ho drew the Turkish fire, and the bullets were all the time hitting the daisy patch and whistling over the trench in which our men had taken oover.

. Rescuing a Wounded Man. Captain Craig, hearing the wounded man's call, then left the trench and went to the wounded' man's assistance, and went back to get this man. The first man he reached was the wrong one. He was dead. The doctor, all the . time under fire, cut off this, mail's identification disc and put it in his pocket. He then found the wounded man and endeavoured to roll him forward to the trench; but ho was a;heavy man and the task was an impossible one, so ho returned to the trench and called for two volunteers to help him to bring the man in. Two privates, .Donaldson and Dalziel (3rd Auckland), immediately volunteered, and the three then went to the wounded man, lifted him up and proceeded to carry him in, the bullets whistling about 'them all the time. Nearing the trench a. sniper got Dr. Craig and lie fell sho't through the thigh. At tlie same time DalzielL, fell,' shot through the leg. Thus the three men fell in a heap just as they wero on the point of reaching safety. Donaldson managed to drag the wounded man into the trench, and Stacey, the doctor's orderly, and others got tho doctor and also Dalziel into . the trench. , Stacey made light of his particular part of the adventure. "It was nothing," he said. Stacey, however, dressed the doctor's wound, stayed with him in the trench till nightfall, and then accompanied him on the three-mile journey to the dressing station, and a subsequent four and a half mile journey to the beach. It was a seven and a half miles journey for the strotcher-bearers, as the routo was not a direct one, and it was 2.15 a.m. before they reached the beach hospital. After they had gone about three miles of their journey the Turks burst a star shell over them, and they received a burst of rifle fire from a range of 400 or 500 yards. One of the bearers with the stretcher in front was shot through the head. Dr. Craig is now on his way back to his regiment on tho Peninsula.

Brilliant Fronoh Charge. On the afternoon, of Saturday, May 8, while some of the New Zealanders ivero lying in a trench at the Daisy l>atch, and singing a little to . keep up their spirits, a man suddenly.called out that the French were retiring. Some time before they hacl watched them advancing in a long blue line. Now it seemed as if they had broken and wero retreating helter-skelter to_ their old trenches. .The Turks, noting the retreat, came on en masse. The French then retired to their second lino, and. the Turks promptly occupied the first line of trenches. Then the deadly "75V' got to work. They had the rango to a nicety, and, with high explosive shells and shrapnel, they gave Iho enemy a'terrible time. The fire was so rapid that a ourtain of black smoke and dust, arose from tlio bursting shells, and under cover of this cloud tlio French infantry reformed and charged back with wild yells. 'What tho guns had left undone was accomplished with tho bayonot.

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